Vinny Del Negro will be back for a third season on the Los Angeles Clippers’ bench, as the team has elected to pick up the option on the coach’s contract for the 2012-13 season.

The Clippers posted a franchise-best win percentage of 60.6 percent this season (a record of 40-26) and beat the Memphis Grizzlies in seven games in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. It was just the second time in Donald Sterling’s 31 years as owner that the team made it to the conference semifinals. L.A. was swept, however, by the San Antonio Spurs, in the second round.

Rumors of Del Negro’s impending firing swirled when the Clippers lost three games in a row—and were mired in an 11-13 rut—in March. The team went on a run from there, winning 13 of its next 15, and went on to secure the No. 4 seed in the West playoffs.